You and Yours Call-in Today on Private Parking Companies

drbayleaf

Radio 4 You and Yours right now is a call in about dodgy private parking firms: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001sd2q 

Coupon-mad

Did anyone here listen in? Have not had time.

KeithP

It's available to listen to on that link provided by @drbayleaf, but you do need to sign in on the BBC website.

Brie

Surprised to hear someone who is a lawyer saying that one should pay parking firms money because it's private land and so people can make up their own rules of what is appropriate.  

Umkomaas

Listened to the first 30 minutes. Started with a case of someone who felt they could park in the local undertakers car park as it was empty while she went to a nearby cash point.  Unsurprisingly NtK in the post (but felt entitled to park there - recent leg op, weekend so no funerals etc etc). Then, a couple of the more usual case types we deal with. 

Gary Rycroft solicitor chiming in with not always accurate/helpful advice. Hospital parking tickets, Llangrannog, unreliable P&D machines, two identical cases (father and daughter cars at same time and location) going to POPLA - one successful, the other rejected, were mentioned. Was going to turn it off at this stage, but attention turned to the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 (at around 18:30 minutes in) which was a bit more interesting with some decent Gary input. 

Then off we go again with potentially more long-winded tales of woe, so as I've probably 'heard' them already a zillion times here on MSE, I pulled the plug. If anyone has more resilience/patience than me to get to the end and finds there are more interesting segments later, perhaps they can comment here. 

Whatever2023

Brie said:

Surprised to hear someone who is a lawyer saying that one should pay parking firms money because it's private land and so people can make up their own rules of what is appropriate.  

How very dare a landowner decide what people can or can’t do on their property 🤦🏻‍♂️

Half_way

Whatever2023 said:

Brie said:

Surprised to hear someone who is a lawyer saying that one should pay parking firms money because it's private land and so people can make up their own rules of what is appropriate.  

How very dare a landowner decide what people can or can’t do on their property 🤦🏻‍♂️

indeed, however there are limits ( and rightly so)

If you have a publicly open car park where the public are invited in , then there are limits on what can be done to stop people being taken avantage of, clamping is already against the law, and there are many other things in place to protect people ( although not quite enough) from agressive trading practices, of which many people fall victim to

 As for the undertakers car park, then gates/barriers would solve any unwanted parking/entry

I first started to learn to drive in random car parks where the store/shop was closed but the car park was accessable , likewise if you have an issue with the vehicle or a medical emergency, and so on, it makes comon sense to pull off the main road - where you will be causing an obstruction and hazzard to passing traffic .

 If you want to keep people out then you install gates/barriers/bollards etc, however these whole providing a genune security purpose they dont make money like an anpr set up does as people think these are fines.

 Plus gates will also keep out the "boy racer" brigade who can pop into an empty ungated car park rev their engines/do nut for 8 minutes or so and then move the the next open site

Coupon-mad

Whatever2023 said:

Brie said:

Surprised to hear someone who is a lawyer saying that one should pay parking firms money because it's private land and so people can make up their own rules of what is appropriate.  

How very dare a landowner decide what people can or can’t do on their property 🤦🏻‍♂️

Sounds a bit like the stuff spouted by an APA  ad infinitum. This rogue industry does love to hide behind the (often not true) excuse that "it's what landowners want."

Almost sounds reasonable. Would do to the uninitiated. Luckily there are several great people (plural) on the good side of the Steering Group who are very good at seeing right through it and helping the DLUHC to do the same.

Truth is, IMHO it's a system akin to an automated protection racket.  It is appalling that this legalised 'extortion' is offered free or with a massive £ kickback (like the £1000 per week paid to the freeholder in the Beavis case) and landowners keep falling for it.

Hence, there's a seemingly never-ending queue of credulous landowners ready to go along with whatever the greedy gits at PPC World want to set up.

There are pubs & shops whose livelihood has been ruined by ANPR wielding PPCs:

Here's one (PPC World would call these accounts hearsay):
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/loggerheads-mold-car-park-fines-13774891.amp

And another:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/perth-kinross/795573/mp-set-for-showdown-with-firm-behind-controversial-perth-car-park/

And another:

https://www.wrexham.com/news/local-politicians-call-on-uk-government-to-clamp-down-on-private-parking-firms-239903.html

And another:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php/?id=106563514456890&story_fbid=409426924170546

https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/23112932.kendals-duke-cumberland-pub-car-park-controversy/

"Josh Macaulay, director of Westmorland Hospitality, which leases the pub, said there was a 'genuine feeling of relief and excitement of the end of a dark period for both staff and customers'.

"We didn't have the power to do anything but the staff have got a lot of flak and abuse from understandably unhappy customers, and it's damaged our trade quite a lot - people think we're in on it, but we don't get a penny. The Duke, like every pub, has had massive rises in bills but we can't pass that onto our customers as people can't afford it.

"On top of that, we're losing customers because they're getting parking tickets, and the pub is fighting for survival. So Punch has finally agreed and instructed Smart Parking to switch off the CCTV, which is scheduled for December 1, so the next day we're having a party to celebrate."

Do PPC World just see small clients as collateral damage when it all goes wrong, and move on to the next duped hotelier or publican?

That's what this ParkingEye insider said:
http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2016/12/parkingeye-employee-reveals-their-rape.html?m=1

As you have openly posted here a few times now, clearly from a parking firm (or debt collector or APA or other connected company) I wonder: how does the industry feel it's going?

You know, the Code of Practice, the industry about to be regulated, etc.

It's been fun - no, more than that, it's been flipping great helping the Government realise the extent of the immense consumer harm which I put down to the involvement of bulk litigators.

They are as much if not more damaging to honest, law abiding average people than PPCs.

This year is likely the last hurrah for PPCs and bulk litigators, do you agree?

Fruitcake

Whatever2023 said:

Brie said:

Surprised to hear someone who is a lawyer saying that one should pay parking firms money because it's private land and so people can make up their own rules of what is appropriate.  

How very dare a landowner decide what people can or can’t do on their property 🤦🏻‍♂️

How very dare a parking company decide what a landowner/landholder can and can't do on on their own property.

You only have to look at the number of "own space" threads we see on here to know that hiding behind, "it's what the landowner wants" is not always true.